Twain and Reconstruction

After finishing Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, as well as discussing the Reconstruction period in class, I noticed that Twain reflected in his book the social issues that came with this period after the Civil War.  Twain finished the book approximately 20 years after the war was over.  Slaves were “free” by this time.  Yes, they were indeed free (as of the thirteenth amendment).  However, I feel like Twain hinted the truth of that time that while by law slaves were free, they still certainly did not have equal rights.  Black Americans during the time may have been free in a technical sense, but they did not have the same freedoms; Black codes (defined in Foner as “laws passed by the new Southern governments that attempted to regulate the lives of former slaves”) were enforced, and they could not vote.  Twain showed how Tom took advantage of Jim and mistreated him  (knowing all along that Jim was actually free).  However, in the end, such mistreatment causes other characters to acknowledge Jim as a worthy human being.  Reflecting on the entire book, it is evident how Twain portrayed Jim how probably many “free blacks” at the time felt; free in a legal sense, but not necessarily by society’s standards.

Looking at the immense segregation that followed the 13th amendment, clearly blacks were not equal.  How do you believe Twain's constructed world, the way Jim is seen by society, parallels the issues that would evolve during the Reconstruction era and the time to follow?

Jim was free all along?!

Last week, we have finished Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.  After finishing the book, a few thoughts came to mind, some that were particularly frustrating (please note, I am not trying to devalue the book—it was definitely a good read).  But I’m not here to write a summary of the book (those who haven’t read it can do so or can look online for a summary).  However, the frustration I felt was the realization that most of the actions done by Jim and Huck were done, in hindsight, for no actual purpose.  It was a troubling aspect that a lot of what they did was for potentially no reason.  Throughout Huck and Jim’s journey, Jim had to be careful of who say him, and what he was “allowed to do” because of his black identity, set by society’s standards.  In the end, we find out that Jim has technically been a free man all throughout the adventure when Tom reveals that he has known all along that Miss Watson has been dead for two months, and that she freed Jim in her will.  That whole entire time when Jim was constantly cautious about being caught as a “runaway slave”, he was actually free!  To me, that was frustrating because I seemed to sympathize for Jim.  I felt sorry for all the masking, hiding and what not, he had to do because of his identity; especially since morally Jim seemed to be the only decent human being in the end...  

Success?

Recently in the news, Chinese mother, Amy Chua, published the book “Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother”, as well as an essay titled “Why Chinese Mothers Are Superior”.  In her piece, she mentions how she chose to raise her two daughters, and how it was “successful”.  Yeah academically I wouldn’t doubt it.  Both daughters, Sophia and Louisa (Lulu), (currently 18 and 13) never got a grade below an A (they “weren’t allowed to”, according to Chua).

In her book, she talks about her parenting style, why it “worked”, and why she thinks it is better than the “permissive Western parenting style”.  To say Chua is a strict parent is an understatement.  Talk about a parent who doesn’t allow their kids to have playdates, watch TV or play computer games, choose their own extracurricular activity, etc (click on the article above for more specifics).  Her daughters were raised to focus strongly on schoolwork and were required to play piano and violin (they were not allowed to play any other instrument) hours each day.

Throughout her piece, at least from what I could tell, she seems assume all Chinese parents are like her.  Maybe not to such extreme, but nonetheless that this is the “Chinese” way.

I cannot believe any mother would raise their children like this.  To infringe on their freedoms and basically take away the normal childhood seems wrong.  Reading this one particular story made me particularly mad.  It went like this:  Amy Chua was celebrating her birthday with her husband and two daughters, 7 and 4 at the time, when they gave her a handmade birthday card.

"More accurately, it was a piece of paper folded crookedly in half, with a big happy face on the front. Inside, 'Happy Birthday, Mummy! Love, Lulu' was scrawled in crayon above another happy face. I gave the card back to Lulu. 'I don't want this,' I said. 'I want a better one – one that you've put some thought and effort into. I have a special box, where I keep all my cards from you and Sophia, and this one can't go in there.' I grabbed the card again and flipped it over. I pulled out a pen and scrawled 'Happy Birthday Lulu Whoopee!' I added a big sour face. … 'I reject this.'" [an excerpt from her book]

I am in shock that any parent would do this to her children.  Her whole parenting style seems too much, in my opinion.  It seems like she is raising robots.  Yeah maybe her style would be okay if all we wanted were flawless brains.  But the interesting thing about humans is their characteristics, their individual interests, beliefs.  And not allowing children to try new things (school plays, sports, etc.) seems to be depriving them.  Clearly “success” is defined in many different ways, but do you think this the “successful” way to raise a child?

Are Faster Trains Worth the Cost?

Last week, in Obama’s State of the Union Address, he stressed how the United States must “out innovate, out educate and out build” in order to “win the future”.  Living in such a competitive time, Obama believes we must advance in our technology and research in order to compete with such countries as China and India.  One way he wishes to do so is by building high-speed rail.  While I agree that innovation is key for such competitive world we live in, I do not necessarily think high-speed trains are worth it.  He mentions how China “is building faster trains”, and calls to the attention that we Americans, who first built the transcontinental railroad, must improve our system.  He states, “Within 25 years our goal is to give 80% of Americans access to high speed rail.”  While it would be nice or cool to have the fastest trains in the world, I do not believe it would be that beneficial.  In fact, with so many alternate ways to get to work, many people don’t even use the trains that much. Yes, there are definitely some who ride the train to work everyday.  Yet, with all of the highways that are easily accessible and our extensive airport system, train travel seems to be fine as it is.  It’s sufficient enough, in my opinion. 

In fact, Governor Scott Walker of Wisconsin cancelled a high-speed rail project in his state.

“Walker argued that Wisconsin didn't need $810 billion for a 78-mile line between Madison and Milwaukee because there's already a transportation artery — Interstate 94 — that enables people to get from one city to the other in a little more than an hour."

And for us Chicagoans, we should “consider the $1.1 billion track improvement on the Chicago-St. Louis line in Illinois. It would reduce travel time between the cities by 48 minutes, but the trip would still take over four and a half hours at an average speed of 62 miles per hour.”

Driving to St. Louis really doesn’t take much longer than this proposed train system.  Although I frequently drive there for field hockey tournaments, I’m not quite sure if a good amount of people travel between the two cities enough for it to be beneficial.

Therefore, I do not think it would be worth the money to create the fastest trains.  However, maybe if I rode the train more often I would think differently.  I would be curious to see what other people think, or how much a difference you think it would make?

Meta Post II

Overall, I feel blogging has become easier for me this quarter.  First quarter, I had trouble coming up with topics to blog about, and sometimes rushed to come up with a post. Last quarter, I feel like I only blogged when I felt like I had a strong enough or interesting enough topic.  However, that was also a negative factor because I sometimes waited over a week to blog.  Although I still have a fair amount of posts, next semester I definitely want to work on blogging more frequently and consistently.

I have to admitt, at first I really dreaded blogging.  I think the reason was because I was so nervous about putting my opinion out there, and worried what people would think.  However, if there’s one thing that I know we’ve been taught over and over this year, it is that “writing is a process”, and there’s only room for improvement.  The more practice I get, the better I will become at writing.  While sometimes it can be scary and nerve-wrecking putting your opinion out there, it only helps.  Take peer editing, for example.  Once I write a rough draft, I’m always a bit hesitant about having others read my work.  However, getting their feedback only helps me grow as a writer.  I feel like blogging is so great about that.  While with blogging people aren’t necessarily critiquing your writing style, they still are reading your opinion and responding to it, either to agree or disagree. 

Speaking of people’s responses, I used to only think it was “good” if people commented “agreeing” with my opinion.  However, now I realize I prefer when people disagree or challenge my view, because it makes it more interesting and really gets me to think, and see the issue at different perspectives.  That is the great thing about blogging; the opportunity to have virtually any internet-user to comment on your writing.  However, if I want classmates to comment more on my posts, I realize that I myself need to step it up and comment more on theirs.  I feel like commenting is an important aspect to the blogging world, and I would like to be better connected to that “world” by commenting more next semester.

Looking back at my “Meta Post” from first quarter, I had three main goals.  One was “creating more concise and to-the-point posts”.  Reflecting back on last quarters’ posts, I think I only somewhat achieved this goal.  I have definitely had some that are shorter, but some have been a bit lengthy.  However, for the most part, I feel the longer ones were the length they needed to be to get my point across and to provide adequate proof. 

Another goal I had after first quarter was to “extend the conversation”.  Once again, I feel like I have improved on this some, but still find it something I want to continue to work on.  For example, second quarter I had more comments on my posts, some of which led to a debate.  In my “The Price of Awareness” post regarding a high school football player who was kicked of the team for wearing pink cleats in support of breast cancer, people commented on whether it was right for the coach to do so or not.  One person agreed with my viewpoint in that the boy’s civil liberties were violated, while another took the coach’s side.  And more recently I blogged about “Teen Pregnancy and the Media”.  After mentioning a specific area where teenage pregnancy is so high and showing one reason people think it’s so high is because the media seems to “glamorize” it through shows like “Teen Mom” and “16 and Pregnant”.  I ended the post with the following:

“That mom argues that these teenagers are getting so much attention over a controversial topic.  Do you believe it is morally right to give such attention to these girls?”

By posing a question for the audience to respond with really opened up a conversation.  One person allowed me to see the issue in a completely different light by giving a statistic that such TV shows actually “helps them [teenagers] better understand the challenges…and why they should avoid it.”

My last goal from first quarter was to vary my topic choice, and I feel like I’ve done that.  I’ve written about strictly class discussion topics, as well as pop culture posts.  I’ve written serious posts, and some that are more fun.  I think having a variety is important, and I hope to continue writing all different types of posts next semester.

As this semester ends, it is hard to believe how much I’ve grown as a writer.  While I still have plenty to improve on, I am thankful for the chance to practice blogging all next semester.  A process is a "continuous action", and this writing process is one that I plan to continue working on, and to strive for improvement.

*Doc OC and Mr. Bolos-- Please read "Teen Pregnancy and The Media".  Thanks!

Teen Pregnancy and The Media

When I opened up my Yahoo! homepage, the article “High school dealing with 90 pregnancies” caught my eye.  I clicked on the video to find out more.  After watching and reading the article from Yahoo!, out of interest, I further researched the issue.  I was shocked that within this school year, so far, 90 girls have gotten pregnant or had a baby at Frayser High School in Memphis, Tennessee.  (To see the teen birth rates across the US, click on this map). 

The article goes on to say that while Memphis already has a pretty high teen pregnancy rate (15-20%), at this particular school, the rate is 26%. 

While there are many factors to take into account on why more and more teens are getting pregnant, Deborah Hester Harrison, the executive direct of Memphis’ Girls, Inc., partly blames the media.

“It’s no surprise that Harrison places at least part of the blame on the media, such as the popular MTV shows ‘16 and Pregnant’ and ‘Teen Mom.’”

While I haven’t seen enough episodes to make a complete judgement, from what I have, these shows seem to glamorize teen pregnancy.  In fact, recently I have noticed that more and more articles in "Us Weekly" are about "16 and Pregnant" and "Teen Mom".  Here is just one mom’s response to the media.

“Farrah. Maci. Catelynn. Amber. We know these teens by name. We see them not only on TV but also on the covers of magazines, entertainment blogs and pretty much everywhere we look. Their celebrity status rivals that of any rock star. The bad decisions these teens made have been rewarded with fame and attention. There’s a concern that impressionable young girls will want to emulate these pretty girls who get as much exposure as Miley Cyrus, Demi Lovato and Angelina Jolie.”

That mom argues that these teenagers are getting so much attention over a controversial topic.  Do you believe it is morally right to give such attention to these girls?

1/11/11

1.11.11
January 11th, 2011.  Today's date is significant to a lot of people.  But also insignificant to others.  It's some peoples birthdays (shout out  to Carolyn), some peoples anniversaries.  But besides those who have a reason to celebrate, this day seems special to a lot of people.  Whatever the reason, superstitions or maybe number-obsessed (Haha I must say, I think I fall into that category), the date seems cool.  When really, only 10 days ago the date repeated the same number (1/1/11).

Dates with number repetition or patterns sometimes hold historical significance.  On 1/23/45 Hungary withdrew from WWII.  08/08/08 was the start of the Beijing Olympics, in which the opening ceremony began around 8 p.m. (and in China, the number 8 is considered lucky).  For runners, 10/10/10 was the Chicago Marathon.

Will today's date hold historical significance for years to come?  According to this article, perhaps Verizon's 11 a.m. iPhone announcement will go down in history."  In fact, if you use google images and type in "1.11.11",  this picture comes up... =>

So, for you, is this day significant or just a normal day?  Just something to ponder...